EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) -The Los Angeles Kings, playing without their top two goalies, claimed veteran Sean Burke off waivers Thursday from the Tampa Bay Lightning.

Burke, who turns 40 later this month, had a 14-10-4 record with a 2.80 goals-against average in 35 games for Tampa Bay last season. He became expendable when the Lightning acquired Marc Denis and Johan Holmqvist in the offseason, and has a 4.52 goals-against average in seven games for Springfield of the American Hockey League this season.

Burke, who made his NHL debut with New Jersey in the 1987-88 season, has a 318-331-105 record and a 2.95 GAA in 797 career games with seven NHL teams.

Dan Cloutier, acquired by the Kings from Vancouver last summer and given a two-year, $6.2 million contract extension, underwent hip surgery last Friday and is sidelined indefinitely. He has a 6-14-2 record in 24 games and ranks last in the NHL with a 3.98 GAA.

Mathieu Garon figured to get the bulk of the playing time with Cloutier sidelined, but he was placed on the injured list last Friday because of a broken finger. No timetable has been set for his return. He is 8-7-3 with a 2.80 GAA in 20 games.

The Kings entered Thursday night's game against the St. Louis Blues with a Western Conference-low 38 points.

On the bright side Luc is getting his Jersey put up into the rafters tommorow. Wish I could be there to say thanks to Luc. Really nice guy and have been fortunate to skate on the same ice with him and Marty Mcsorely at some hockey camps he made a guest appearance at. Class guy and we will miss his playing days.

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Robitaille reflects on great memories on eve of No. 20 being retired by Kings

(CP) - Luc Robitaille predicts the tears might be flowing come Saturday night when his No. 20 goes up to the rafters at the Staples Center.

But on the eve of his jersey retirement with the Los Angeles Kings, the former all-star winger was all laughs as he fondly reminisced about his 19 years in the NHL, 14 of them in L.A. He vividly recalled his reaction after the Kings drafted him in 1984.

"I remember looking at a map and seeing how far L.A. was from where I was born," the Montreal native said Friday.

Barely a word of English in his arsenal, it didn't take long for Robitaille to know he was far away from home after joining the Kings in his rookie season in 1986-87 following three stellar years with the Quebec League's Hull Olympiques.

"I knew right away it wasn't Montreal. Like they say, we're not in Kansas anymore," the 40-year-old said with a hearty laugh.

A then-20-year-old Robitaille didn't let the Hollywood backdrop affect his play, scoring 45 goals and 84 points in 79 games - earning him the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year. But he couldn't help but notice his surreal surroundings.

"I remember one of the first celebrities I met, Chad Lowe came to see us after a game with his brother Rob," said Robitaille. "And Melissa Gilbert was with them. I was a big fan of Little House on the Prairie. She came in the dressing room with those guys, and she saw every guy walking around naked in the dressing room and I'll never forget, she stepped backward about five feet so fast.

"We were like, 'Hey, that's the girl from Little House on the Prairie."'

Robitaille also had to put up with the antics in his own dressing room, veterans such as Larry Playfair, Bob Bourne and Mark Hardy playing practical jokes on him in the early years.

"Every day those guys would seem to find something to do to one of us young guys," said Robitaille. "I remember looking for my shoes once and they were stuck on the ceiling with cement glue. We couldn't pull them off the ceiling."

Then there's the old sewing of the sleeves on the jersey.

"You go to put on your jersey and you'd almost break your wrist," Robitaille said. "They'd cut your socks or nail your shoes to the ground. It was so funny, you don't really see that anymore. But in those days those guys would spend hours figuring out new tricks."

The biggest trick of all for Robitaille was making the NHL, let alone starring in it. He was a ninth-round pick of the Kings, all the way down to 171st overall. Today the draft is only seven rounds long.

"He was a great junior but the setback was that he couldn't skate, or at least not enough to play in the NHL," former Kings GM Rogie Vachon said Friday. "That's why everyone kept passing on him that day at the draft.

"Finally I said, 'When are we going to take this guy?' I had seem him play in junior. At some point I said, 'OK, that's it, we're taking him now.' And I think it was a pretty good move."

The knock that Robitaille couldn't skate was answered in style: highest scoring left-winger in NHL history with 668 goals.

"Every day I was trying to prove people wrong," said Robitaille, now an executive with the Kings' parent company, Anschutz Entertainment Group.

The all-time franchise leader in goals scored (557), Robitaille will join Vachon, Marcel Dionne, Dave Taylor and Wayne Gretzky as the only Kings players to have their jersey retired.

"He's wonderful kid," Vachon said of him. "He has a very nice family, he was a great teammate and always very good with the young guys. Just a very, very classy guy."

"I think it's going to be a pretty emotional night," said Robitaille, who retired after last season. "I've put a lot into the game for the last 35 years of my life. It's really the ending of it. I'm looking forward to it because it's been such a great ride."

His next honour might be the Hall of Fame in a few years. He had 1,394 career points (668-726) in 1,431 regular-season games with Los Angeles, Detroit, Pittsburgh and the New York Rangers. Robitaille also ranks second all-time in Kings history in games played (1,077), second in points (1,154) and fourth in assists (597).

He never won a Cup as a King but came close in 1993 when Los Angeles lost to Montreal.

"The Cup final in L.A. was definitely the highlight of playing here," said Robitaille.

"Winning the Cup in Detroit (in 2002) toward the end of my career and really appreciating what it meant was really special too," he added.

And playing with Robinson and Gretzky, two players he idolized, was also huge.

"I think for the first year or two I barely said a word to them because I was so intimidated," said Robitaille. "Now I look back, I feel so fortunate to have met and played with my idols."
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Kopitar no stranger in a strange land
As a youngster, Anze Kopitar would wake up in the morning, walk out on the balcony of his family’s home in Jesenice, a town of about 21,000 people on the Adriatic Sea. Kopitar says it's not unlike a young boy growing up in North America with his nose pressed against the window, looking into the distance. Only Anze wanted to see more than just the countryside in his native Slovenia, which gained its independence and split from Yugoslavia in 1991. He wondered what was out there in the distance beyond the tunnel that separated the former Yugoslavia and Austria for him.

"I was five minutes from Austria and 25 minutes from Italy, but ..."

Kopitar paused to reflect on the whole big world that his family helped him reach, from the hockey rink his dad built for him to learn to skate and refine his skills, to the discipline he learned working at his mom's restaurant, to the insistence of his grandmother, a schoolteacher, that Anze take English as a second language.

Anze Kopitar wasn’t dreaming about the NHL when he was growing up in the tiny border town of Jesenice. His parents wouldn’t let him stay up at night to watch any NHL games that might be shown on Slovenian TV. That didn’t stop Anze from waking up in the morning and getting on-line to study the scores and stories of a game that seemed so far off.

Kopitar grew up reading about how Sergei Fedorov defected from his Russian team in Seattle before the Goodwill Games in 1990. He watched and followed Fedorov’s career with the Detroit Red Wings. He dreamed that he might someday also make his way to the NHL.

"It was really helpful to have a dad who knew so much about hockey," Anze said. "He gave me great advice. I remember we spent a lot of time watching old tapes. We’d watch different NHL players, Fedorov was one of my favorites. I’d watch his stride, his skills, his discipline among others. Then my dad and I would try to work on certain parts of my game and use the tapes as a learning tool."

A few minutes with Kopitar and you come away thinking he’s 19 going on about 30. He’s bright, outgoing, smart and always looking to challenge himself to do more. The problem some European players have with adjusting to the culture, the language, the bigness of everything over here doesn’t seem to affect Anze. Nothing seems to bother him.

Like his first game in the NHL, Oct. 6 at Anaheim, when, midway through the second period, Kopitar took a breakout pass from teammate Dustin Brown in stride. He looked up for an instant and saw All-Star defenseman Chris Pronger in his way to the net. Instead of pausing to wonder what he might do, Anze blew past Pronger, then put a nifty move on Ducks goaltender J.S. Giguere and scored his first NHL goal.

"I knew it was Pronger, but I didn’t want to think about it. I told myself going into the game that I wasn’t going to be scared or nervous, so I just reacted quickly the way I’d normally react to that kind of situation," he said, then he smiled and added, "I didn’t get scared until I watched it on replay after the game and saw exactly what I did ... and who I beat."

Actually, Kopitar scored twice in that opening-night loss to Anaheim and then he followed up that debut with three assists in a 4-1 triumph over St. Louis at Los Angeles.

At 6-foot-4, 220 pounds, Kopitar is the big, skilled center with leadership ability that every team wants. But the shred of mystery over coming from Slovenia enabled Anze to slip out of the top five or six in the draft to the Los Angeles Kings with the 11th pick in the first round of the 2005 Entry Draft.

"Anze was in our training camp a year ago," said Andy Murray, currently the coach of the St. Louis Blues, but then Kings coach. "He was our best center in camp. He could skate, pass and shoot. He had the whole package. We wanted him to play for us right away, but he had a commitment to play one more year for his team in Sweden.

"Let me tell you: There were a lot of tears shed by our coaching staff last September when we had to let Anze go."

Obviously, he was worth the wait for the Kings. Kopitar has ranked second only to Pittsburgh Evgeni Malkin among rookie scorers in the NHL.

Kopitar is a very special player.

"The first time I saw Anze Kopitar he stood out as a talent and a difference maker at the World Junior Championships, when he was just 16," said Toronto Maple Leafs scout Craig Button. "He had five goals in five games. But from the first time I saw him to today, it’s clear that his biggest asset is how he challenges himself to be better and how he makes the players around him better.

"Without his desire and passion and skill for the game, Slovenia wouldn’t have stayed in the ‘A’ Pool of that tournament. He willed them to respectability."

Kopitar has ranked second only to Pittsburgh Evgeni Malkin among rookie scorers in the NHL.
Matjaz Kopitar realized that, at 15, Anze was already playing in a men's league, and it was obvious he was at a crossroads and needed a bigger challenge.

"I reached my goals in Slovenia," Anze recalled, "so I knew I had to go somewhere else and step forward. It was a big challenge, because I had to leave home and live on my own. I really missed my mom’s cooking."

But his hunger for the NHL grew.

First, he went to Sodertalje, Sweden, to play, with a junior affiliate. But then quickly graduated to the Swedish Elite League when he was just 17.

If it seems like this is a kid who was poured into a hockey-only world. But he also played soccer and basketball. And, oh yes, you’ve got to hear about his job at his mom’s restaurant, which specializes in pasta and steak.

"My mom made sure I worked hard, but also had some fun," Anze laughed, who would take orders sometimes, but ...

"Some of the waitresses weren’t strong enough to handle more than a couple of plates," Kopitar said. "Three or four plates filled with pasta or with a huge steak got too heavy for them. But I got to be good enough that I could carry about four plates at a time."

And the balance from those plates ...

"Yeah, it didn’t hurt my balance on skates, either," Anze joked.

And in school, Kopitar not only worked on his native Slovenian language, but he added English and German to his repertoire.

"Grandma was right," Kopitar said. "There are so many things knowing different languages can open up to you in life."

In Los Angeles, Anze Kopitar feels right at home. He lives in Hermoso Beach and he’s gained a bit of home with his friendship with Los Angeles Lakers guard Sasha Vujacic, who is one of a half-dozen Slovenian players in the NBA.

That confidence living away from home came with some great advice from his junior coach, Per Nygards.

"I’ll never forget what he told me," said Kopitar. "He said, ‘Don’t hope. Make things happen. You can only hope to win the lottery.’ "

Clearly, the Kings must feel like they won the lottery with Kopitar making a difference for them nearly every night.

"He’s already our go-to guy and he’s only 19," said defenseman Rob Blake. "He plays more than 20 minutes a night, in all situations, and he never seems to have a bad game."

"You're used to seeing young players come in, especially offensive players, and they're only good with the puck on offense," added captain Mattias Norstrom. "With Anze, he plays the center position like a throwback player: He's very responsible defensively, so you find him a lot of the time on the defensive side of the puck, coming up on the ice.

"Offensively, most pucks come through him: He’s like the classic playmaker, dishing the puck off to his wingers. It’s funny, but if you look at his stats, you'd think maybe he was cheating a little bit to create offense, but I'd really say the opposite. He's responsible in his own end and he takes care of that before he goes on offense."

"He’s our most dangerous player on most nights," said Crawford. "He’s really reliable for such a young age and what a competitor. He really likes to challenge opponents one-on-one ... and he wins most of those battles."

Then, Crawford went to a baseball comparison.

"In baseball, the experts like to talk about the elite players in the game being five-tool players (refering to those who can hit, run, hit for power, play defense and can throw)," Crawford said. "Well, Anze is already a five-tool player in our game."

And this youngster is having the time of his life. Recently, the fun-loving Kopitar took his mother and younger brother, Gasper, who were in town for Christmas, on a tour of Hollywood, the beaches, Universal Studios, Disneyland. They went everywhere.

"It’s amazing how lucky I’ve been," Kopitar said.

Lucky? Not this young man, who has the Midas Touch. Now, when he wakes up in the morning and looks out the window, he must enjoy knowing how old dreams have been reached ... and finding new dreams that are oh-so-close to being conquered as well.http://www.nhl.com/nhl/app/?service=...ticleid=287623

Sean Burke will be in net tonight when the Kings play the Phoenix Coyotes. The Kings sent Brust back to Manchester of the AHL. D Mike Weaver returned to the Kings after spending two weeks on a conditioning assignment with Manchester. Forward Marty Murray cleared waivers and was sent to Manchester. - Los Angeles Times

This is going to be a long post(rant) so bear with me, you probably won't read it anyway.

Kings game tonight was very disappointing. Of all the games I wanted to win, this was the one I wanted to win for Luc. This is the ONE game King fans marked down on the Calendar. SUCKS we lost but it was great to see all the King players dress up in #20 with Robitaille on the back of the sweater during warmups. Also was awesome to see all the greats I grew up watching all on the ice. I saw Barry Melrose, Jay Wells,Bernie Nicholls, Gretzky, Stephane Fiset, Jari Kurri etc I could on and on. I don't think there is a classier athlete than Luc and hopefully he will be remembered as one of the...wait no THE Greatest left-winger to ever play the game. Can't wait for his Hall of Fame Induction!

If it was not for Kopitar on this team NOBODY would be watching this pitiful excuse called a hockey team. WTF! We go 0/8 on the PP? That isn't going to get **** done. You won't win hockey games being extremely crappy on the PP's. This game showed what typical King's hockey is all about this season, STUPID Penalties and a crappy PP unit. Goaltending is becoming a huge hole to this team and has been for a long long long time. We can never find a consistent or hell a HEALTHY goalie would do. Because of that we will have a top 2 pick. Looking at the standings, it sure is nice to see everyone within reach of the playoffs. This bodes well for the Kings because as the trading deadline looms it will be beneficial for the Kings. Obviously the Kings will be sellers in this market, the more buyers there is the more likely the buyer will overpay for Conroy, Norstrom, Miller etc because the more bidders there is then the higher the price goes. Witt got a prospect and a 1st last season. So I expect to see Deano pull off some shrewd moves. He already has trading a nobody Goalie in Munce for a 4th round pick. I know for a fact Dean Lombardi is looking for young defenSeimian to go with Jack Johnson. I also know he has been calling Nashville, Rangers, Flames, and pretty much anyone with young defenSeimian within reach of the playoffs. Alot of hints were said at the season ticket holder breakfast with the GM which several of my freinds went to. His motto has always been build from the Goal out.

Hopefully Bernier can fill that role by 09' supposed to be the next Brodeur/Roy. Earning alot of praise in the Juniors. Jack Johnson WILL be a King by next year. Brian Boyle is kicking ass with Boston College. O'sullivan just needs to learn how to play the corners and will be very good. Trevor Lewis is doing well in OHL with Owens Sound. Frolov is going to be a consistent 40 goal scorer. Cammelleri is having a good season. Brown is knocking the snot out of everyone. Kopitar is going to be Kopitar, had a sick sick sick shorthanded goal tonight. Probably won't win the Calder but thats fine, there are plenty of runner-ups that have moved on to great careers. Kopitar is just scratching the surface of his potential considering where came from. Kings will select a defenseman with their 2nd or 1st overall pick. Probably Alzner. Only interesting thing this season is the trading deadline, time to blow it up and rebuild Dean...

Pos: Centre
Shoots: R
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 179 lbs.
Born: 1/22/1989
From: Stockholm, SWE
Team: Chilliwack (WHL)
RANKINGS
TSN: 29
CSB: 20 NA
ISS: 25
RLR: 13
McK: 38
THN: 19 The TSN Insider's Forecast: The Swedish forward who loves to shoot the puck, but is also an adept playmaker, excelled on both sides of the ocean this season. He captained Sweden at the Under-18 tourney in April, but he was fifth in WHL rookie scoring (32 goals and 69 points in 68 games) with the expansion Chilliwack franchise. Moller is not overly big but plays hard in all situations. He teamed up well on a line with Mikael Backlund at the Under-18s. Moller is one of those players who wouldn't surprise anyone if he were taken between 20 and 30, but could slip a little to no later than the top of the second round.

From NHL Central Scouting: A playmaking forward with a good work ethic. Is a two-way player that competes every shift. Has good skating ability and vision. Anticipates the play well and handles the puck with ease. Needs to improve his ability to fight through checks and play in traffic.

From ISS: His size is a slight issue, but he works so hard that he makes up for it with tenacity and effort on every shift. His low centre of gravity actually assists him because he is difficult to move off the puck. He also has great leadership traits that should translate very well at the next level. This kid will do whatever it takes to win. His skating is just OK, however his hockey IQ and and ability to be in the right place at the right time are impressive to say the least.

Simmonds started his rookie year in Owen Sound fighting for ice time on the fourth line. Only 17.

In the second half of the season he was moved up to the top two lines and that helped him finish sixth in team scoring with 23 goals and 26 assists along with 112 penalty minutes in 66 games. He added a goal and an assist in four playoff games.

"Once I started to do well, I started to think I could go to the next level," said Simmonds.

"I went from being a first liner in rookie in junior A to sitting on the bench for the first 20 games (in the OHL). When you get thrown out, you just have to hit everything you can and hopefully coach sees that you're trying your hardest and rewards you."

Simmonds isn't rated on the NHL's Central Scouting list, but he has talked to 11 teams and worked out for New Jersey following the NHL draft combines.

"I think in the second half of the season, everyone saw what he was capable of," said former Attack general manager Mike Futa, now the co-director of amateur scouting for the Los Angeles Kings.

"He brings a very unique blend of talent, skill and grit. He likes to drop the gloves. He'd be the first to admit that he's got to put on some weight."

In the third round with the 82nd overall the Kings selected C/RW Bryan Cameron.

Cameron was the captain of the Toronto Marlies Minor Midgets that won the OHL Cup last season. 13 players from that team were picked in the draft in May, including John Tavares, the first overall pick of the Oshawa Generals, and Patrick Daley, who suited up for the 67’s on Wednesday.

“I think when you’re the captain of the best team in the province a year ago at the (minor) midget level and you win a provincial championship at the level that that team played at all year long, that says a lot about Bryan Cameron,” said Burnett, who is in his second season as the coach and general manager of the Bulls.

"Kidd is a throwback to the big, bruising defenSeimian of the past. And while he’s still slight of frame, there’s plenty of room to bulk up and complement his solid two-way play with a little extra power. In the end, you can’t teach size – and Kidd would be a welcome sight for many teams in keeping their creases clear."

The 188th pick the Kings select LW/ C Matt Fillier.

Central Scouting Report: A hard working forward… shows leadership and
has a steady positive influence on the play… has a physical presence on the ice
and is very dependable defensively… needs to improve his consistency around
the net.

The Los Angeles Kings have agreed to terms on a five-year contract extension with defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky, Kings President/General Manager Dean Lombardi announced Wednesday. Per club policy, terms of the agreement were not announced.

Visnovsky, 31, has played in 417 games over six seasons with the Kings (2000-07) and he ranks fourth all-time in goals (62), assists (176) and points (238) by a Kings defenseman. Originally selected by the Kings in the fourth-round (118th overall) in the 2000 NHL Entry Draft, the 5-10, 188-pound native of Topolcany, Slovakia, set a career high with 18 goals for the Kings this past season, represented the Kings at the 2007 NHL All-Star Game and was named the club’s Outstanding Defenseman at the end of the season.

“I’m very happy that I’ll be staying with this organization for a long time,” said Visnovsky from his off-season home in Slovakia. “I love Los Angeles and I want to play in the playoffs with the Kings.”

Visnovsky finished the 2006-07 season with 58 points (18-40=58) in 69 games. His 58 points led all Kings defenSeimian for the second consecutive season and his eight power-play goals ranked second among Kings defenSeimian and fifth overall on the club. In addition, Visnovsky set career highs for shots (159), shooting percentage (11.3) and time-on-ice average (24:27, led the team) while finishing second on the team in takeaways (37) and third in blocked shots (107).

Visnovsky is the only defenseman in club history to ever lead his team in scoring for a season after recording a career-high 67 points with the Kings in 2005-06. His 67 points represented the fourth-highest single-season total ever produced by a Kings defenseman. In addition, Visnovsky, the only defenseman in the NHL to lead his team in scoring that year, was named the club’s Most Valuable Player and Outstanding Defenseman after tying for fourth in scoring and assists among all NHL defenSeimian. Visnovsky also led the Kings (and set a career high) with 50 assists and he paced the team with a time-on-ice average of 23:16 per game and with 41 power-play points (10-31=41). Visnovsky’s 10 power-play goals ranked second on the team and his 80 games played tied for second on the club. In addition, his hat trick at Dallas on Nov. 2, 2005, was just the fifth hat trick ever recorded by a Kings defenseman (Rob Blake, Steve Duchesne, Dominic LaVoie and Ian Turnbull are the others).

Visnovsky played for HC Slovnaft Bratislava (Slovakia Extraleague) and finished second on his team and 12th in the league with 38 points (13-25=38) in 2004-05 (the NHL’s lockout season). He scored 12 points (2-10=12) in 14 postseason games and earned Best Player honors while leading his team to the league championship.

Selected as the Kings Outstanding Defenseman at the conclusion of the 2003-04 campaign, Visnovsky finished second in scoring among Kings defenSeimian with 29 points (8-21=29) even though injuries limited him to just 58 games. Five of his eight goals came on the power play (led all Kings defenSeimian) and he finished second on the team with an average of 24:02 of ice time per game.

Visnovsky finished third in scoring among Kings blue-liners with 24 points in 2002-03 while averaging 19:20 of ice time per game, and in 2001-02 he finished fourth in scoring among Kings defenSeimian with 21 points (4-17=21) while averaging 16:14 of ice time per game. Two of his four goals that season were game winners.

Visnovsky led all rookie NHL defenSeimian in scoring with 39 points (7-32=39) in 2000-01 and his 39 points ranked fourth among all rookies while his 32 assists ranked second best overall. Visnovsky also ranked third among rookies with a plus-16 rating and he was the third Kings rookie to ever be named to the NHL’s All-Rookie Team (joining Blake and Duchesne). In addition, Visnovsky was named the Kings Best Newcomer at the end of the season.

Visnovsky last skated for his native Slovakia at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, and the three-time Olympian also participated in both the 2002 and 1998 Winter Olympic Games. In addition, Visnovsky is a veteran of several other International tournaments, highlighted by a gold medal at the 2002 World Championships (5 GP, 2-1=3), a silver medal at the 2000 World Championships (9 GP, 0-6=6) and a bronze medal while leading all defenSeimian in scoring (9 GP, 4-8=12) at the 2003 World Championships.

As we count down the days until the opening of training camps, I've decided to play a fun game of "Better or Worse?" In the coming weeks, I'll look at each team (in alphabetical order) and give you my opinion about whether it will be better or worse in the coming season, based on what it has done in the offseason. This isn't meant to be a complete preview. I'll leave that for the fall.

Los Angeles Kings (27-41-14): Better.

It will be difficult for the Kings to be any worse than they were during the 2006-07 season. They finished with just 27 wins, the second fewest in the league. So, I'll play the odds and predict that they'll pick up a few more points in the standings.

Still, these rebuilding Kings are a long, long way from a crown.

For the second straight summer, GM Dean Lombardi's efforts to woo high-end free agents to L.A. came up short. This time, he couldn't convince Daniel Briere or Chris Drury to relocate to Hollywood.

With the exception of Preissing, who did well as a 5-foot-6 defenseman in Ottawa, none of the aforementioned players is coming off what you might call a "good" season.

Handzus missed all but eight games last season with the Blackhawks due to knee surgery. Lombardi committed a lot of money and term to an average player coming off an injury.

Calder, Nagy and Stuart didn't have injury problems, but none of the three skaters played up to expectations last season. In fact, all three guys were traded during the season and neither really made a significant impact for the teams that traded for them.

Nagy and Stuart signed expensive one-year deals, so the risk is limited. Calder, however, inked a two-year contract. If he doesn't find his game, the Kings will be on the hook for a second year. While Klemm was signed as a depth defender, Aubin will have a chance to get some crease time in L.A. because of the club's messy goaltending situation.

The Kings came into last season with goalies Dan Cloutier and Mathieu Garon. New Kings coach Marc Crawford wanted to lean on Cloutier, who had tended goal for him in Vancouver, but the netminder never found his stride. He was 6-14-2 with a dreadful .860 save percentage in 24 games before having his season shortened by hip surgery on Jan. 12. It was the second straight season Cloutier missed significant time due to injury.

Garon, who also had some injury problems, fared much better, posting a 13-10-6 record with a .907 save percentage. He was good enough to leave Los Angeles via free agency, signing a new deal with Edmonton.

With Garon gone, Cloutier, Aubin, minor-leaguer Jason LaBarbera and 2006 first-round pick (11th overall) Jonathan Bernier will battle for the two goaltending slots. The Kings have high hopes for Bernier, who turned 19 last month. Lombardi and Kings fans everywhere hope Bernier will be the long-term solution to the team's goaltending woes. At his tender age, I doubt he's ready for full-time NHL duty. Hopefully, he won't be rushed to the big league; the Kings cannot afford to damage this valuable asset.

In all, the Kings' summer signings didn't do much for me. The defense should be better, but it won't show if the club doesn't get consistent goaltending. Up front, I don't know what to expect from Handzus, Nagy and Calder. The answer might be ... not much.

I think it's pretty obvious the club's future rests firmly in the hands of young vets like Mike Cammalleri, Alexander Frolov and Dustin Brown, as well as top young prospects such as Anze Kopitar, Jack Johnson and Bernier. In time, as these players continue to mature, the Kings have a chance to be more competitive. For now, however, I don't see them making more than a 10-point improvement in the tough Western Conference.

Poor article overall. The signing of Aubin is so that we can have some of the young goaltenders get playing time in the lower divisions of hockey like in Reading. Those goalies are Jonathan Quick and Jeff Zatkoff, if the writer would call Lombardi or just look at Lombardi's track record with young goalies. Using Kiprusoff and Nabokov as examples, they both had problems in the minors but they worked through them and now look at them. If he did some research he would know that Lombardi DOES NOT rush goaltenders to the NHL at all. Quick and Zatkoff will get more playing time in the minors because of getting Aubin and also so we don't have to bring up somebody that is not ready. Last year we had goalies going down like flies and had to call up a friggin Japanese goalie who was way too green for the NHL. Kings have Ersberg, Labarbera (AHL Hap trophy winner for fewest GAA), Cloutier and now Aubin. Not a great situation for the Kings but this year is different than last year because there will be actual competition for the starting spot, instead of just handing it to Cloutier. When the season goes on, I will have one eye on Bernier when he is in the Juniors for one more year and the other on what is going on with Kiprusoff and the Flames, if Kipper can play for Keenan or if the Flames start losing. His contract is up at the end of the season and is a UFA.

Anyway as far as FA's signings go, I find it comical this writer would criticize Lombardi for not bringing in Briere or Drury, two guys that will never live up to their contract. What the writer doesn't understand is that the Kings had a lot of holes and signing a player with contract demands of 7-9 million a year isn't going to plug those holes or make the problem any better.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Lombardi

But then again, to be honest, if you had to do the seven (million for Drury), then you couldn't spread the money out and fill the other holes. I've debated that myself. I'm certainly not sure I wanted to go to 7.3 (million), even if it wasn't that he wanted to go to the Rangers. So you try to be objective about it, and I think I kind of like the idea of filling a number of holes. Maybe a year or two from now, when more holes are filled, it makes more sense to say, ``OK, let's give all the money to one guy.'' I'm not sure if this doesn't end up making us better, but I can't deny that we were involved in it.

BINGO! You see the plan now Hradek? You don't get a 8 million dollar player when you have holes on your team, Dean is stockpiling the pipeline with good young players who will be ready 2-3 years down the road and then maybe we can get a top player once we have actual depth on the squad. I'm not sure the Kings make the playoffs this year but I put them in the 7-12 range, Pacific division is still tough and playing the Ducks, Sharks, Stars is going to be a grind. We'll see like Deano says-

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dean Lombardi

"They've proven they can play in the league and they've proven they can be pretty good players. Let's see if you can prove you can win."

Why dean lets crawford keep cloutier around blows me away? with no clear potental starter it's going to be musical goalies again just to keep cloutier from shooting himself, It's very similar to the avs situation in net.

Why dean lets crawford keep cloutier around blows me away? with no clear potental starter it's going to be musical goalies again just to keep cloutier from shooting himself, It's very similar to the avs situation in net.

Ok, A. Cloutier is coming off injury. Who knows if he will ever be the same guy he was with the Canucks when he won 30 games. B. Nothing is promised to Cloutier this year, he has to earn his way. C. He might be in Manchester, who the hell knows. Like I said in my earlier post, there will be competition, if he can prove himself to be a quality goaltender then great. Kings would be thrilled with just a consistent goaltender. Avs have Budaj who isn't too shabby at all and they are going to be pretty competitive this year with Smythe and Hannan (who I wanted over Stuart).

The Kings goalie has been wishing for the new season to come along so he could put the last two - both cut short by injury - in the past.

"It was a long and frustrating rehab process," said Cloutier, who had surgery on his hip in December. "Whenever you have to rehab that long, you're just looking forward to the next training camp."

A premier goaltender in Vancouver before missing most of the 2005-06 season with a knee injury, Cloutier was brought to the Kings last year to shore up the position.

Instead, he allowed 3.98 goals in 24 games played, up from a career average of 2.75 goals against, and the lack of a dependable goalie was a key reason for the team's fourth-place finish in the Pacific Division.

Cloutier said he knew in the first week of the season that he had done severe damage to the hip.

Every time he went into his stance, he would feel bone dig into bone.

"If you're a goalie and you're a second or two late, you can't really compete at that level," Cloutier said. "That's what I found.

I wasn't playing very good. I was getting beat every night on saves that I should make."
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Cloutier admitted to being stubborn for not having the surgery earlier and said his desire to play after missing most of the previous season played a part.

Entering training camp, he said he is feeling close to 100-percent physically but will need time to get back the reaction time and instincts that made him so good in Vancouver.

"Health-wise, I'm there," Cloutier said. "It's everything else.

It's getting out there and playing, the speed of the game with traffic. Those are the things you lose. You don't necessarily lose guys coming down the wing and shooting. You lose all the little things, tips and battling around the crease."

Cloutier enters training camp in a battle with Jason LaBarbera and newcomer Jean-Sebastien Aubin for time at goalie. He wants to be the starter in the regular-season opener, though he admits it could be a while before he returns to his top form.

"I don't know how long it's going to take but I guarantee I'll work as hard as I can to get there," Cloutier said.

Blake back

Another player returning from a hip surgery is defenseman Rob Blake.

Blake practiced Monday but said it will be a few months before he is fully recovered.

"You try to do as much as you can on it," Blake said. "As far as structurally, you're not going to do any more damage. The stiffness will be there for a few months but that's nothing we can't overcome."

Blake said he plans to play a few of the exhibition games to make sure the hip is recovered to the point that it won't hinder him on the ice.